30APRIL2012 @ Sioux City, IA - Good paddling weather is predicted for today and tomorrow morning.  I intend, therefore to try for 40 miles today and take what I can tomorrow.  Wednesday scattered violent storms are predicted, so I may opt for very few miles Wednesday, build a fire, ice down a six-pack of Coronas, procure at least one righteous T-Bone and while away the afternoon acting as if it is the first Wednesday of the month.  Ah-h-h-h plans.  Let us see what unfolds.
About ten miles along a bald eagle swept down and nabbed a fish ... all this about 150 feet in front of me.  It was facing downstream and, of course, continued downstream about 100 yards and into a leafy cottonwood tree.  Why 100 yards?  From what I could see the eagle had trouble flying ... I suppose a lot of momentum can be lost when a fish is not snagged as cleanly as expected.  Paddling on I floated directly under the cottonwood and got a good look at the eagle and the tail of a fish.  I do not consider bald eagles to be large ... looking straight up at one only 25 feet away, it looked plenty big.
Mike Tyndall and his work crew were sawing logs near mile 708.  I stopped to see more and found them clearing a riverside road that had been seriously blocked by the 2011 flood.  Imagine cutting through tree trunks that are as large as 48".  Imagine a flood that topples such trees.  Imagine moving the cut sections out of the roadway.  There is no heavy equipment there - just chainsaws, two pickup trucks and a crew of weightlifter body types.  What an impressive group of folks.  Mike informed me that I had just passed the "Hole in  the Rock", one of the James Gang's hideouts.  He did not add, but I surmised that the road they were clearing is the wider version of the horse trail used by Jesse and his group.   
By the time the Decatur bridge came into view the wind had gotten so strong that keeping the canoe headed downstream was a struggle.  Too much struggle actually - I  came in backward for the final mile.  I pulled in at the best looking sandbar I could find and walked up into a flurry of road grading, hammering and sawing as the flood-damage-fixers were winding down their day.  Before I finished introducing myself I had a BudLight in my hand, an offer to taxi me into Decatur and an offer for a dry place to stay tomorrow - 17 miles downriver.  Here comes that paddler friendly expression again.  One light beer later I was back in the canoe paddling the final 200 yards into the marina.  It feels good to be secure in a place protected from the wind.  Later I met Mark Kwikkel, marina manager.  He put me up in a trailer - no charge.  We talked on for a while, but given his interest I could have talked more.  Fine fellow.
Last years flood was so bad that today I saw a tree trunk (about 30 feet long and about 9 inch diameter) suspended horizontally near the top of several small trees ... and about 20 feet above today's water elevation.  I saw far more than that, but I'm limiting my amazement statements.
Today I paddled from river mile 733 to river mile 691, a distance of 42 miles.   In addition to bald eagles I saw an Osprey, geese, turtles and ducks.  Lots of turtles hopped off their logs ... and there are a lot of logs.